LIFE SCRIPTS

Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them. Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.” The apostles and elders met to consider this question. After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written: “ ‘After this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things’ — things known from long ago. “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”
Acts 15:1‭-‬21 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/act.15.1-21.NIV.

When God moves among ‘strange’ people, feathers are always ruffled. Why? Probably because we seem to expect Him to minister only to those we see as ‘closest’ to Him. But if Christ said that He’s come to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), why do we seem to place burdens on those already embraced by Him? That’s what we see here when some company of individuals arrived from Judea who held onto the belief that Gentiles must be circumcised for them to become fully saved. So contentious was the issue that it had to be brought to the apostles in Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas were at the forefront in opposing this view. Why? Because they had been among Gentiles and had seen God do wondrous things among them. Peter the apostle had once been instructed by God to visit the home of a Gentile, Cornelius and lead him to Christ together with his household. God moved among Gentiles irrespective of them being circumcised. The blood of Christ has finished ALL the work required to bring us to salvation. No additional practice is needed. Probably today, circumcision might not be the bone of contention. Instead, we might disagree over other dos and don’ts which we might consider essential for people to come to salvation. But what if God moves among people irrespective of them doing these things? God is greater than our imaginations. He can reach out to people in places where our imaginations cannot even venture. Even those people we consider vulgar and outcasts are under His radar and He will minister to them according to His will. If they make a choice to accept Christ and be redeemed, who are we to place obstacles on their way? God has called us to freedom in Christ. A freedom that comes with a responsibility called obedience. That’s it. All other things are additives which are neither here nor there.